Will you sink of swim?

Hi everyone!

I am in my final semester of my Management and Public Relations degree at Curtin University and I am currently in my sixth week of my PR internship at St John of God Murdoch Hospital (SJOGMH). This blog post is concentrating on everything I have done from the first till the third week of my internship and boy have I learnt a lot in a short period of time.

The first challenge I faced during this unit started way before I took my first steps into the PR and Community Relations department of SJOGMH, and that was finding a placement. I'm not going to lie, finding a placement wasn't my cup of tea. The idea of cold-calling an organisation in the hopes of scoring a twenty day internship terrified me and three weeks until the start of semester I knew I had to get my butt into gear and just do it!

After a week of procrastination and researching various organisations I finally made the call to SJOG and I'm glad I did, as they said I could definitely do a placement in their PR and Marketing team at their Murdoch campus on the days I was free (I work 30 hours already). In all honesty the last six weeks have flown by and I don't think I could have selected a better organisation to intern for.

For those who don't know, SJOG hospitals are private, non-profit and located throughout Australia and New Zealand. SJOG appealed to me as an organization as they were non-profit and I always wanted a career in health care.

But enough about that and let's get down to how my first three weeks went.

The first week of my internship was the sink or swim period, and to say I was thrown into the deep end would be an understatement. My first day was centered on looking at all their publications, social media, community relations and events archives so I would have a feel for what the PR and Community Relations team does at SJOGMH. Then on the second day my first assignment was to interview two caregivers; a doctor and the Arts Program manager, and write up two separate pieces by the following week to be published in the SJOGMH quarterly newsletter "The Murdoch Messenger"

My boss, Roshan, asked me if I was comfortable jumping straight into the interviews solo and I jumped at the opportunity to shine. So, armed with a trusty tape recorder in my hand I set off to prove I could conduct a successful interview (I mean we all did them in PR 250 Media right?) and come up with a story with an angle that the public would be interested in, boy did that backfire at first.

I went into the first interview completely unprepared and it took only three minutes. I knew as soon as I was walking back I had screwed up by not preparing my questions beforehand. We were taught during PR 250 Media that preparation is the key when it comes to interviews, both as an interviewer and as an interviewee. I was not making that mistake again!

Heading into my second interview I still had my trusty tape recorder, but I was also armed with a sheet of questions that I had prepared which would hopefully start the ball rolling, and it did. I was more confident and I found I was able to probe deeper and get more relevant answers. Seems that in this instance what I had learnt at uni had paid off going into my internship.

The second week consisted of more interviews with more people, and more pieces to boot! Again, preparation was the key to my success and the key to being relaxed and confident. Up until this point I had received really positive feedback from Roshan on my writing though it did require editing before submission. The confidence boost I received from this feedback was exactly what I needed as I remember feeling extremely nervous after I had sent off my first piece to Roshan for approval in case it wasn't up to the standard of a university graduate.

One thing I have realised is I am now learning how to push out pieces and media releases in less than two hours, sometimes even in less than an hour. This is a huge turnaround from when I was at uni and writing up media releases for assignments would take me days. Roshan told me "limits and caveats breed creativity and force you to rely on your instincts" and I am starting to see how true this is.

My third week was not as hectic and I spent most of my time researching the use of social media in health care. SJOGMH has a social media plan and is active on Facebook and Twitter but want to better utilise various social media outlets to boost their profile as the leading private hospital in Western Australia. Roshan stressed to me that social media is not just about pushing information out, but making it relevant to the target audience and stakeholders. They want their stakeholders to engage with them as a brand and this requires using various channels more effectively.

So as you can see, my first three weeks were full on sink or swim moments but I am happy to say I have loved every moment of it so far, and I'll keep you posted on what is happening in the next few weeks.

(If you want to see some of my work, follow this link http://www.sjog.org.au/pdf/Murdoch_MM%20Autumn_2013_FINAL.pdf. I wrote the 'Caregiver of the Year' piece on page 3 and co-wrote 'The Art of Good Health' on page 4.

Until next time!

 

Is this Goodbye?

Hello fellow placement students!

So we’ve finally reached the near end of our semester and placements! I really do hope that everyone has enjoyed themselves and been the sponge in the workplace soaking up all those skills.

Through my last weeks at Relationships Australia (WA) and completing the final report I’ve come to realize the amount of things that I’ve actually learnt. From writing the section about our placement summary in the report I’ve been able to see the things that I’ve been learning collectively each week. From using nifty computer programs such as Adobe InDesign to learning about “competition” in not-for-profit-organisations, everything has been equally important with no values being more significant than another.

In all honesty (and naiveté) I thought that most people would get offered real employment in the work that they were doing from their placements. How silly was I to think that from just one work experience we would all find our calling and love the work that we were doing. If anything this work experience has opened my eyes to see what really interests and doesn’t interest me. I like writing yes but what type of writing would I like to be doing. Article writing? Media releases? Brochures and flyers?

 

I’d have to say my most favourite writing pieces are articles on any events in the organsation. Each week I’ve been given at least one upcoming or recently passed event to post up onto our organisation’s website. Writing articles can sometimes be difficult in the not-for-profit industry because of the sensitivity of certain topics and even the use of certain words and phrases. Through my placement I have been duly noted on different writing styles and what is needed from Relationships Australia. I think one of the most rewarding things in writing is seeing your work actually published and available to the public.

 

 One of the articles I wrote

 

I believe that this unit has all in all been beneficial to me because of the experience that I’ve learnt as well as any negatives that I didn’t enjoy at my placement. All these things have shaped my attitudes on where I would like to work in the future.  

 

Through this experience I hope that I can find a place of employment that I will truly enjoy and find fulfillment in. Do any of you have any decisions about where you would like to work? Do you already have jobs secured?

 

Keep up the reports everyone!

 

Xoxo

 

Angela

My first published article...

The World In An NGO
It is very difficult to work in an NGO as we constantly face the difficulty of under-staff or a lack of finance, however it is an occasion to prove what we can do in different ways. We learn that in the field of work sometimes are pushed to do things we are not paid for in order to make the organisation work properly. Through this process we can broaden our knowledge and develop a lot of new talents

The first time i wrote the article for the previous event, a more formal journalism style was used to make it look professional. However the organisation wanted a more personal view of the event. My first published article was written for the association to describe its previous fund-raising campaign as a trainee but also a volunteer. This article was published on the PILS website and can be access by anyone. It was written so as to give an overview of someone who is new to the organisation and how he sees them as a team. The objective behind this is to send a message to all the people to volunteer in making the PILS campaigns a success as they will benefit through this experience.

Then my second article written was about HIV/AIDS symptoms and signs which is an article which was meant to be published in a newspaper. However the newspaper has changed the subject and took another article from another organisation before seeing my article. However this article will be kept for later as the information is relevant to the cause of the organisation. The right message to be sent to the people about what is HIV/AIDS via the media so as they would not publish wrong information.

Here is my article which was written in french as it is the language used by the association.

Supertote Red Ribbon Trophy : Un samedi au Champ de Mars…

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Ma première expérience en tant que stagiaire et volontaire pour l’organisation PILS (Prévention, Information et Lutte contre le Sida) commença avec l’édition 2012 du Supertote Red Ribbon Trophy au Champ de Mars, le 04 août dernier. Cette journée - je l’ai appris un peu avant – est un événement annuel conjointement organisé par PILS, le Supertote et le Mauritius Turf Club (MTC). Un évènement de levée de fond qui s’insère dans la lutte de PILS contre le VIH et le SIDA.

Le temps était couvert et venteux alors que je cherchais le chemin vers les stands de PILS, suivant les indications du chef d’équipe de l’unité de Prévention, Information et Communication de PILS, à qui je n’avais jusqu’ici parlé qu’au téléphone. Après plusieurs appels, j’ai pu localiser les stands de l’association sur le parking du Champ de Mars.

A ma première rencontre avec l’équipe de PILS, je me suis demandé quel rôle je pourrais avoir. Je me suis dis qu’avoir un T-Shirt de l’évènement comme les autres volontaires pourrait me permettre de me fondre dans la foule.

Ma tache m’a tout de suite été assignée : la quête. Finalement vêtu de mon T-Shirt et ma boîte de quête en main, j’ai rejoint des membres de l’association AIESEC venus officier en tant que volontaires. Ces derniers, pour la plupart des étrangers de passage à Maurice sous l’égide de cette même organisation internationale, recevaient des instructions en anglais, notamment sur les façons de s’attirer la générosité de la foule.

En gros, l’astuce était simple : un beau sourire et l’affaire serait dans le sac ! Mais pas si simple pour nous les garçons, car les jeunes demoiselles faisaient visiblement fureur auprès du public du Champ de Mars, majoritairement masculin !

Avec un autre volontaire, nous avons commencé notre tournée du Champ de Mars. Au début, nous avons essuyé quelques refus et grognements. Pas très encourageant… Mais cela faisait rire mon coéquipier, apparemment toujours de bonne humeur ! Quelques autocollants distribués en échange de dons, et quelques « Merci beaucoup et bonne journée » plus tard, nous sommes finalement entrés de plein pied dans l’ambiance de la journée.

Une fois notre boîte remplie, nous sommes retournés aux stands animés par PILS pour profiter des jeux et animations et apprendre un peu plus sur la sexualité et les méthodes de préventions.

Au début j’ai été très gêné par la boite à plaisir, un jeu visant à démontrer l’utilisation correcte du préservatif, mais au final le jeu s’est avéré très instructif ! J’ai aussi joué au jeu de fléchettes et comme j’étais en plein jeûne pour le Ramadan, j’ai aidé comme j’ai pu à tenir le stand pendant que les autres sont partis manger.

C’était un moment amusant où j’ai appris pas mal des choses tout en donnant un coup de main. C’est un peu à ce moment qu’un homme m’a arrêté pour me dire qu’il avait écouté mes conseils et avait fait le test de dépistage dans le stand qui était spécialement aménagé à cet effet. Il a ajouté qu’il avait gardé mon visage en tête pour me remercier.

Nul doute que cette journée a été riche en rencontres et je suis heureux d’avoir intégrer une équipe aussi dynamique même si ce n’est qu’en temps que stagiaire. J’espère être à la hauteur pour faire du prochain événement un succès dont je serais fier.

Ahmad Bundhoo